fire engine water storage

[Keli]

I was agrguing with my friends the other day about fire engines because i thought they store water on them wheras they thought everytime they just plugged into some form of hydrant in the ground. Who's right?

[LordMulberry]

the simple answer is that some do and some don't.

Ladder trucks etc tend to use Hydrants but some smaller engines do have a water tank to tackle smaller fires.

[Keli]

I know thats the case in america but is it the same in the UK?

[rja211077]

as far as i know most have a tank on them in case there's no hydrant available, but it wouldn't last long. they need to plug into a hydrant for any extended use.

[Keli]

Thankyou very much, now i can say i was right!

[Dusky]

In many cases you'd both be right.  If an appliance with a tank is obliged to use some of its store of water, it needs to refill from a hydrant before driving on too far because a half-full tank slops around too much to be able to drive safely.  A full tank doesn't slop around nearly so much.

[Bangkok]

Engines can store enough water to put out a car fire (often an insurance job in the middle of no where). but also act as pumps (and indeed are called pumps) if a hydrant supply is available (which is necessary near almost all buildings)

[ianess]

In UK most if not all appliances carry enough water to get a hosereel onto the fire immediately, and connect up to the hydrant at the same time.  500 gallons springs to mind which weighs about 2 tons, and no-one really wants to drive too fast with all that sloshing about on board.